


Filters

by Hopscotch714



Series: Swapping Leaders AU [1]
Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: 2012 Kids are kinda messed up, 2018 Kids teach Leo about family, Everyone's connected tho, I really wanted to do a thing, Leo's obviously a pro at dimensional stuff now, Leon has an existential crisis, Leon's afraid of heights ofc because I'll take that headcanon to the grave, Medic Leon because you can pry that out of my cold dead hands, No beta we die like shelldon, Probably ooc, Raph is a good big brother I love him, TMNT Crossover, and 2012 Kids show Leon the importance of leading, but I'll try my.best to stick to character, one way or another, poor dude has no idea what's going on, specifically because I thought it'd be interesting, they both kinda balance out and learn things from this, where Leon and Leo switch bodies, you need to pay attention to details because Ima be dropping some hints for things later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:15:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopscotch714/pseuds/Hopscotch714
Summary: Sometimes Leon and Leo switch bodies and they don't know how to deal with the new environments.
Series: Swapping Leaders AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2176770
Comments: 26
Kudos: 126





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to the start of the story! This is the prologue, and it's less of a stable chapter and more so to introduce the idea. It's shorter than the other chapters (I think) and I'm working hard on the story itself. I hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading.

Sometimes when Leon woke up, he wasn't Leon. 

Sometimes, when he woke up, his brothers  _ were  _ his brothers, but somehow  _ weren't  _ his brothers. The first time it'd happened, he was so put off by the change of his height, the change of his voice.. the differences in everything. The entire atmosphere around him felt different. It felt…  _ dirtier _ . When he'd asked Donnie- the other Donnie, the Don in his dreams, the tall and shy one who seemed to eye him with concern as he asked, "Where's Pops?"

"You sure you're okay, Leo?" Donnie asked for the nth time that morning. Leon wasn't really sure on how to answer, if he could even answer. His first instinct was to laugh it off, to say, "I'm fine!" And crack a joke and that'd be that. 

But the first time he did that made Mikey- the Freckled one, the loud one, the one from his dreams that didn't feel so different but  _ at the same time they were so different and- _

And it made him panic, checking his forehead dramatically and screeching at Donnie that he was sick, which he was  _ not _ . He was dizzy. Confused. Dazed. 

At the moment, Leon was sitting in the bare room, the room that had little to nothing in it, a couch, a television, and some little accessories here and there, littered around the room. It felt so different from his home, so  _ bland _ that he wished he had half the artistic talent that Michael did so he could just brighten up the place a bit more. 

Space Heroes. 

Space Heroes was, for lack of a better word,  _ boring _ . It was nothing like Jupiter Jim  _ or  _ Lou Jitsu, and if he were being honest, it was corny and could never lift a candle near his home's television.  _ Home.  _

Leon wasn't sure how long it'd been since he woke up in this new reality, in this new  _ Leo _ . With the brothers who weren't  _ his _ . With the Raph he couldn't trust to not punch the daylights out of him, with the Mikey who didn't seem to know how to properly hold a paintbrush, with the Donnie who wouldn't give in to his taunts and teasing. 

_ What kinda Leo is this, anyway? _ He wondered, sighing as he shut off the television. 

And he left. 

He left the lair, he left the sewers, and he did nothing but waltz around this new, dark New York. It was like… some kind of filter was placed over his eyes. Everything felt so  _ different _ . Darker. Dirty, scummy,  _ smelly _ . He wasn't sure whether he really liked it or not. 

"Leo? What're you doing here?" 

Oh. 

Leon wasn't really sure when, but he'd ended up on a roof, just staring at the sky. He probably got too caught up in his thoughts…

He didn't know this girl, he decides, as he turns to get a proper look at her. She had a short, two-toned hairstyle and sharp, dark eyes, a sly smile on her face. 

_ I guess she knows him _ . 

But what could he really say? He wasn't Leo- or, at least, he wasn't  _ the  _ Leo. He didn't belong  _ here _ , he wasn't supposed to be here. He knew nothing about where he was, and he realizes in that moment how much he really missed his brothers. Raph would keep him safe. Mikey would cheer him up. Donnie would-

Leo snorts at the thought. Donnie would  _ try _ , at least. 

And then he remembers that the strange girl is there, and he hadn't answered her question quite yet, so he pauses and says after almost another minute of waiting, "I had to get out, but, I gotta say, NYC seems just a  _ bit  _ more darker than I thought it was." He laughs in a nonchalant manner, wrapping his arms around his legs and pulling his knees to his plastron. 

He didn't like his voice. It sounded so different from  _ his  _ own voice, so distant. A reminder that this wasn't him, this wasn't his home, and he still had no idea what-

The girl drops down next to him, quietly at first, before turning to him and looking him over, a look in her eye. "Look, it's  _ me _ , Leo. Karai. If something's bothering you, you can tell me."

And right then and there his heart seems to stop and raise all the way to his throat, choking him.  _ Karai _ . 

This Leo was lucky, whoever he was. Karai was here, she was alive and-

And he couldn't really stop himself from hugging her and letting out a muffled sob, something he'd been holding in since seeing Gram-Gram's death. This Karai seemed taken aback, frozen stiff for a second before awkwardly hovering her arms around him and patting his shell a few times. 

"It's-" he chokes on his spit, coughing violently as he pulls away from her and turns to the other direction. "It's hard to explain."

She gives him a look that tells him that she's still trying to read him, still trying to figure out what was up with him, but she seemed to let it go. "Donnie was looking for you," she mentioned, waving a phone around. "He messaged me."

He nods, and looks back at the night sky, at all the little stars that were exactly the same as the one back home, and he finds himself leaning backwards and dozing off after some time. 

  
  


When he wakes up again, he has to take a few horrifying moments to realize that he was still in the strange, alternative universe and not being held captive by Big Mama or something. He's back in the first room, the room with all the posters, the room that he was told was his bedroom. 

And Donnie's there, typing away on his phone as he seemingly waits for Leon to get up. 

"Don?" He managed weakly. 

He was tired. Too tired to really think. 

Donnie seems to notice this right away, as he stands up immediately and tells him, "Don't fall asleep, yet. I need some-" he pauses to bite his lip, "Answers."

_ Answers.  _ Leon's mind echoed back uselessly. 

"Yeah? Need help cracking the code to the universe or somethin'?" He jokes, smiling pathetically and, really, he can't really remember what had happened before he fell asleep and reality seemed to blur in front of him. This wasn't  _ his  _ Donnie, this wasn't  _ his  _ home. 

"You're not Leo, are you?"

And, really, leave it to Donatello Hamato to figure out that one. 

  
  
  



	2. Leo wishes he could communicate with Dead People a little easier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You just respect it, Leonardo."
> 
> Unfortunately, as soon as he opened his mouth to retort that, no, of course he was respecting their stories and whatnot, he just felt like maybe he'd had it worse, the curtain was shoved open and his mental link cut off, Mikey practically throwing himself into Leo's lap to complain about how Donnie managed to "beat his high score on Pants Pants."

"Leo, might I add that, despite what anyone else here says and _nobody_ quote me on this but, I, too, feel that you've been off lately and-"

"GASP! Do you think he's been taken over by an alien?" 

"Hey, can you both give him a little bit of space? I think he needs some air."

It's not his Donnie, it's not his Mikey, it's not his Raph. 

Leo was already experienced in this department, having already met alternate versions of him and his brothers, visiting alternate universes and the like, but he'd never experienced something like… _this._

So the moment he'd realized something was off, he quietly excused himself to his room- _what kind of room was it, anyway?-_ and tried to meditate as best as he could when he could hear the others screaming from behind the curtain about some _movie._

Leo hoped, at the very least, that nobody would bother him and he could _try_ to contact Splinter's spirit, but really, he had nothing. 

Luckily for him, however, he managed to connect to _some_ kind of spirit- a woman who seemed to notice instantly that something was off. He described the situation to her and she, smiling, nodded and introduced herself as Karai.

"I do not know much about the Turtles and their father," she began, "but I can explain to you the events that occured not too long ago."

And explain she did. 

Hearing her explain almost made him thankful that his Shredder was just a _psychopath_ , but then again he'd watched his father die in front of him too many times, watched the literal Earth explode and get sucked up into a vortex.. he couldn't help but feel jealous that all these Turtles had to deal with was some demon. 

Karai seemingly read his mind, seeing as she gently placed a hand on his palm and told him off, "You cannot measure trauma. It cannot be compared or made less of- your trauma is yours, as it is also theirs," she paused, a soft smile on her face as she continued, "You just respect it, Leonardo."

Unfortunately, as soon as he opened his mouth to retort that, _no_ , of course he was respecting their stories and whatnot, he just felt like _maybe_ he'd had it worse, the curtain was shoved open and his mental link cut off, Mikey practically throwing himself into Leo's lap to complain about how Donnie managed to "beat his high score on Pants Pants."

Annoyed, he shoved off the Box Turtle, huffing and barking out, "Look, Mikey-" he pauses on those words for a second before finishing, "I'm _busy_. You can't just come running into my room whenever you want." 

And, well, perhaps that wasn't the best move since now his Not-Brother was staring at him oddly, proclaiming something about needing Doctor Feelings and leaving to go get the other two. Leo winced. 

He wasn't used to this body, to this voice. He wondered briefly how much longer he'd have to handle this before things went back to normal. 

_Arguably, this is normal,_ he groaned, _just another Saturday at this point._

He tries to close his eyes again and reach into the far depths of his mind, but he's soon interrupted once again by the other three weirdos and he finds their suspicious attitudes annoying. 

Donnie's shell opens up and out pops some mechanical arms that pick him up effortlessly, as if he was nothing but a stuffed toy. "He's _fine_ , right?" Mikey shakes his brother's shoulder, who rolls his eyes and pats his head slowly. 

"Oh please, he's just sitting here doing _nothing_." 

And, at this point, he's finding it too hard not to _snap_ , but he needed to remind himself that these weren't his brothers, and he really didn't know how to treat them or what to do about them. 

Raph was in the corner, watching as everything happened. Leo swore he could see his eyes glaze over for a moment, and they probably _did_ , but he couldn't tell because then he was smothered in Mikey's arms and he couldn't _breathe-_

"Alright!" He shouts angrily, shoving away his Not-Brothers and stomping back to his bed. This wasn't really time for a temper, but he was so tired and annoyed and he really wished he was back home. Not to mention he didn't want the others all _over_ him when he was trying to meditate. 

After his outburst, they all stare at him expectantly, and Leo considers confessing. And, really, what's the worst that can happen?

"I'm not Leo," he starts, and then grimaces when he realizes how odd that sounds. "Um, well, I mean I _am_ Leo, but I'm not _your_ Leo, and I'm really trying to meditate so I can talk to Splinter without interruption," Leo hops off the bed and gestures wildly towards the entrance. 

"Can you please _leave_? I'm trying to concentrate."

Again, he doesn't get the reaction he wanted, but really, he didn't know why he expected differently. 

The two younger turtles were all over him, Mikey's mouth running a million miles per hour while Donnie flipped his goggles over and lifted his arm and looked him over several times. 

Leo was patient. 

He thinks. 

He's a very patient turtle, and this is nothing compared to what he has to deal with back home. 

Unfortunately, with his stress levels being as high as they were, he felt his annoyance rise and anger bubbled up in the pit of his stomach as he opened his mouth to yell at them again-

And Raph was there, picking the two of them up in an instant. "Guys, I think he's right," he assured them. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


After a terribly long explanation and some dramatic crying later, Leo finally finds himself at peace, once again reaching far into his mind and for Splinter's spirit. Unfortunately, he'd never really been able to communicate with his late father aside from those small instances, but he'd hoped that maybe, _hopefully_ something changed now that he was here. 

But he felt nothing. The only ghost he seemed to reach out for was Karai, who'd stopped by to communicate with him briefly before realizing that she wasn't who he wanted. She consoled him before vanishing off to- to wherever ghosts went. 

"Hey Little Man, can we talk?" 

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Leo opened an eye and scooted over on the bed. "It's not like I'm getting anything anyway," He mumbled. 

Raph, in this dimension, was huge. And, really, he felt like he should at least feel intimidated but the body that wasn't his seemed to relax instantly when his Not Brother sat down next to him. 

They were silent, at first. Like they both didn't really know what to say or how to say it. 

It didn't last long. 

"So," Raph started, fiddling with his fingers nervously, "Your Pops… and all that really happened?" 

Oh. 

_Oh._

Awkwardly, Leo glanced towards the room, actually taking in the surroundings. "Yeah."

And things were quiet again. He could almost feel the anxiety rolling off of the large turtle, and he couldn't exactly blame the big guy. He'd be, too. 

_I think._

"Any," his voice cracks, so he tried to clear his throat before continuing, "Any other questions?"

Raph seemed to think about that. "You know, I thought you were just messin' around at first. Leo," he takes a look at him again before humming, "likes to pull crazy tricks like that. Middle child nonsense." He waves his arm around dramatically before leaning back against the wall and shutting his eyes. 

"But you're not Leo."

He nodded slowly. "I'm not Leo."

Raph seemed satisfied with that answer, as he nods again to himself, still tapping away on the bed. 

And they're quiet again, and Leo finds himself in his head, but this time to really wonder about the situation. 

"I've met different versions of myself before," he starts, unsure of where he's really going with this. "One of them shouted, 'Turtle Power!' every other second and the other was so… _emotionless_. But," he hadn't noticed that he was trembling a bit, so he took a second to calm his nerves, a deep breath. He was the oldest. He was the leader, and now the sensei. He wasn't allowed to freak out. 

"But?" Raph's worry bled into his voice. 

"I've never been through anything like this before. If anything," he stood up, stretching the legs that seemed all too long and whirling around to face his Not Brother. "I think the other Leo's in my body. So no need to worry, Big Guy." He attempted to smile, but it felt too forced, too shaky. 

Well, he was sure this Raph wouldn't blame him. He was too different from the one he grew up with- he was practically a teddy bear. 

Raph smiled back, practically beaming before grabbing his hand and shouting, "Let's go topside!"

"Topsi- woah!" He doesn't have time to question it, because now, for the first time since he's woken up in this body, he's actually leaving the room and he realizes just how _different_ the Lair was. It was so bright and colorful and his eyes hurt for a second. Raph noticed his hesitation and gleamed at him, "Mikey did it," he explained as they stared at the colorful walls and fairy lights strewn throughout the place. 

"When ShredHead destroyed our old home, we had to find someplace and soon as we got here," He smiled proudly, placing his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest, "Mikey got to work. When we woke up, it was like almost nothing had changed."

Karai had already explained this to him before, he remembers, but somehow it felt different to hear it directly from Raph. There was a lot to unpack with that sentence and it served to remind Leo of how distant he felt with his brothers sometimes. 

_A family._

That's who these Turtles were- a proper family. 

They worked together to create a homely environment and felt at peace with themselves, even though their old home was wrecked. 

It really dawns onto him right there on how the other Leo must be feeling. His family was nothing like these Turtles- they worked well together as Ninjas, but as brothers they weren't as…. Coordinated. 

He considers trying to reach out more when he's back in his own body. 

"Hey, Leo?" He snaps out of his thoughts, turning towards Raph and laughing nervously. "Sorry."

"I was just thinking about something."

  
  
  


After the brothers spent fifteen minutes convincing him to wear a hoodie, Leo finds himself wearing a ridiculous getup that he'd never personally wear. Mikey assured him that it was fun and that they were great disguises. 

"Trench coats are better options," Leo protested as Donnie shoved the clothing over his head. 

"Trench coats will make us look like we're Spine Snappers!" Mikey scolded, lifting his finger into the air and grinning. "And we are _so_ not Spine Snappers."

_Spine what-?_

Unfortunately, he didn't get an answer and he was whisked away to the surface, where he was once again awed by the sights. It was so different from his New York, so _colorful._ So utterly and completely different that he froze for a few seconds to take in everything. 

"C'mon Leo, hurry it up!" Mikey shouts, and he's back in the present and notices that the others were already climbing the roof.

Donnie whips out his phone and types away on it, "Nono, let him take his _sweet_ precious time. I have something I need to look into anyway." 

Leo huffs, irritated. "Sorry, New York is just brighter than I remember!" He calls back, and with that he walks over to the building, preparing to climb up when an irrational sense of fear washes over him as soon as he lifts his foot up. 

_What?_

He frowns. 

_It's just a building. Don't freak out._ He chastised himself before ignoring the pit of anxiety welling up inside him as he leaps upward and with the rest of the group. 

The feeling doesn't go away as the other three clap sarcastically for his timing and rush off to hop onto the next building, leaving Leo to hesitantly follow. 

_Right_ before attempting to jump after them and as soon as he lands on the next roof, he loses his footing and falls over, and the feeling's only getting worse as his eyes shoot open wide and he reaches out for Raph because it was Raph who-

Who what?

He's not really sure, he decides, but it doesn't matter anyway because he falls into a pile of trash and the other three laugh at him playfully. 

Raph's there in a flash, still, holding out his hand and asking the typical question of, "Are you okay?"

And Leo wonders. 

This wasn't his body, so.. he thinks that maybe, _probably_ he's feeling the things that the normal Leo feels, and he has to pat himself on the back for that idea because that felt like a probable solution. 

The only issue was telling them. 

Leo wonders if they already knew, or if the other Leo told them. 

_Does it matter?_

It probably does, but it's already out of his mouth and it's too late to turn back now. 

"Leo's afraid of heights."

Again, he thinks about how awkward it sounds to talk like that, before clarifying, "Er, well, I mean.."

He wasn't sure how to explain. It was simple enough, so…

He takes Raph's hand and dusts himself off, once again stretching out his limbs. "Sometimes," he coughs awkwardly, "While I've been in this body, I feel different _._ Sort of like different things that happen aren't _my_ responses to things, but they're Other Leo's natural responses, and-" he takes a deep breath. He's _Leo._ No time for anxiety. 

At this point, Donnie and Mikey already ran ahead, leaving Raph to stare at him like he'd just revealed the secret of the universe to him. "Heights?" He asks with a tone that Leo couldn't really place. 

"I guess-? I got scared when I climbed onto the roof and it got worse when we jumped," the look on his Not Brother's face made him clamp his mouth shut and wonder if he should've said anything in the first place. _Then_ he decides he's stupid because this wasn't _his_ secret to disclose, but again it was already too late and what was _he_ supposed to do about it?

Wordlessly, Raph picks him up and hauls him onto his shell. "C'mon, we gotta catch up with the rest of the Mad Dogs."

_Mad Dogs-?_

Again, he gets no answers as he's whisked away to a basketball court. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really thinking about it, y'know, like
> 
> They're switching bodies, right? But that's it, really. Leon's body is still HIS body, so I thought, "well, what if Leo could still feel the things Leon feels when doing things?"
> 
> For instance, normally Leo felt he'd be intimidated by Raph's large stature, but instead he feels comforted. Or, he feels nervous around buildings because Leon's afraid of buildings as well, because it's, again, LEON'S body. He'll probably still experience things that Leon experiences in a day to day basis, y'know? That's what I think, anyway.


	3. Leon Gnashes His Teeth Too Much

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Stock…. Boy?" He coughs out, trying to find a sliver of sense in the conversation. "You think Stockboy is doing," he has to let out even more coughs before continuing, " somethin' to me? What would he even do?"
> 
> That must've set something off in her, because she tilted her head quizzically and sneered, "StockMAN. Brain Worms?? Are you really not-"

This day was really not looking good for Leo. Which wasn't exactly abnormal, but with all the weird dimensional things he remembered after hearing his brother ramble on about some weird chatroom he created, the slider kinda decided that this alternate reality sucked. A _lot._

Leon sits up in his newly acquired body, chuckling nervously and says, "Uh, duh? Of course I'm Leo! Who else _would_ I be?" Because, wow, he really didn't know what was happening and he figured that if he got caught, things would probably turn out for the worst. He was better than this! An excellent liar, great at manipulation, and well, maybe that wasn't a _great_ quality to have, it still HELPED. Sometimes. 

That, and, _technically_ he wasn't lying- he WAS Leo. 

Donnie didn't seem to be having any of it, sighing through his nose and standing up, arms crossed over his plastron ("Play it cool," Leo thinks to himself. The arms don't have their normal purple markings, the shell doesn't have its normal cover, but that's _fine._ ) "Karai had to _carry_ you back," he huffed, pointing at his phone. "After you snuck out," he added. 

Usually, a lie would be on his lips in no time and it would've been so easy to say, "Yeah, I was getting pizza," or, "I was practicing my portals," or _anything_ but what he actually said, which was, "I needed to… fight Hypno?"

In his defense, he just woke up after apparently having some panic attack in front of this weird place's version of his grandmother, and he really wasn't sure what to really say or how to lie in this situation because, well, he was getting the feeling that whatever the real Leo was like, they were not at _all_ similar. 

Donnie's face changed to a wide variety of different emotions, from confused to irritated to- well, he wasn't sure. 

How could Leon say that he _was_ Leo, but he _wasn't?_ It wasn't as easy as it sounded, he thinks, so he just lets out another laugh and says, "Look, D, lemme just say that I'm kinda _tired_ right now and you probably have some invention to work on," he snorts and waves him off, "Now, _vamanos_ _hermano,_ I have sleeping to do."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Donnie opened his lips to say something- probably to argue back- but their moment was interrupted when a loud screech was heard from somewhere out in the lair.

They gave each other wide-eyed looks and rushed out of the room (Doors! They had _doors_ here? Uncool.), running directly toward the screech to see some teenage boy running through the halls, dragging a snotty girl behind him. " _Guys,_ " he yelled again, "April's _sick_!" 

_Casey and April_ , his brain magically supplied for him. Leo frowns, trying to figure out how he knew that in the first place when he couldn't even recognize the Karai of this weird dream world, but really the only thing he could do was gape at the two of them and blurt out, "Oh my gosh, April's _white_?"

They all turned to stare at him for a moment, before Raph walked on over and knocked him over the head, "You okay, man? Hit yourself over the head or something?" 

Which was incredibly _rude_ , since he just totally hit him over the head, but Leon could adjust. Maybe. (He totally wouldn't try to get back at him later, it didn't matter to him that this wasn't anything like his brother). 

Leo had been panicking in the past hours, so he didn't really have much time to notice, but it suddenly came to him that he… was incredibly _short._ This Leo was so much smaller than he was, and so was this Raph? He had to actually look down and- oh, they were talking about something. 

"Guys! We're talking about _April_ , not whatever Leo's got going on with his head!" Casey shouts again, and, man, Leon just can't wrap his mind around the fact that not only was Casey a boy, he wasn't even Asian. What a weird dream. 

He hopes it's a dream, at least. He's heard Donnie mention alternate realities before and he really doesn't want to be in one. Not now, anyway. 

Donnie walks up to April (who's now sitting on the couch- when did that happen? Leo needs to stop zoning out and actually help. He's a _medic_ , this is his thing.) and kneels down, checking her forehead before noticing that Leo had crept up next to them, instantly checking her pulse and breathing. 

"What're your symptoms?" Leo asked, disregarding the arguing in the background between Raph and Casey. Something about hospitals. 

(Later, he'll remember that it was some dumb debate about why Casey didn't bring April to the hospital in the first place.)

April glanced at him, her eyes droopy and lips extremely chapped. "Um," she bites her lip, something that makes Leon wince because THAT looked painful by itself, "headache, I guess I'm tired? I can't breathe through my nose."

_Probably a cold,_ Leo hums, checking her forehead and grimacing again, _definitely a fever._

"It's probably a cold," he announced, "or the flu. Is it flu season here?" He asked, glancing around the room to see tense and questioning stares. He decides it doesn't matter, she could probably still have the flu anyway. 

Mikey whistled innocently and walked away to- the kitchen, probably?- and Raph muttered, "Okay, when did I wake up in a world where _Leo_ knows about medical stuff?"

That was, again, another mistake. Wow. Leon really needed to get his game rolling and figure out how in the _world_ he was supposed to act because he's still not sure he should even confess in the first place. 

He noticed Donnie eyeing him suspiciously while he reassured April and told her to "lay down and get some rest, they'll figure something out."

Which… then led to yet another one of Leon's mistakes. 

"I could get her some medicine from my bag," he told them, stupidly, before mentally facepalming and trying to come up with _something_ to convince them that- oh! 

And it hits him out of nowhere. 

_Okay, Prime Time, Neon Leon, Champion of Pants Pants Revolution,_ he smirks mentally, even though he is definitely not the champion, _you got this._

  
  
  
  
  
  


He doesn't got this. 

  
  


He was so sure his plan would _work_ , but he figures that it was too difficult to fully distinguish what this Leo's personality even was. If _he_ was Other Donnie, he'd have already locked himself up by now because he was being all kinds of suspicious. 

Not that he wanted to be; he couldn't help it. It was hard not to have the occasional joke slip out, but really, he couldn't be worse at lying than his Don, so how bad could it really be?

Well, two things-

First, he realized that Leo did not, in fact, even _have_ a bag for injuries. What kind of _Leo_ didn't have a medic bag? What kind of twisted, backwards world was this? It drove him mad, made him gnash his teeth irritably because that was _his_ thing. Raph was the leader, the smash-y guy, the one who would risk anything to help them. Donnie was the smart guy, the mechanic, the "plays the PJO Musical soundtrack during their battles" guy. Mikey was the artistic, the feelings, their _glue_ , the fun guy. 

He had to be something, and that something was bandaging up his brothers when they fell, or giving them Tylenol when they've got headaches, or whatever- that was his thing, along with his amazing jokes and portals. 

He wishes he could learn more about the Leo of this world, but he didn't really know _who_ to trust at this point. Donnie wouldn't stop watching him and Raph wouldn't stop hitting him and- and Mikey kept trying to make him drink some weird Pizza Milkshake thing that made him vomit from just the smell. He didn't want to hurt the poor guy's feelings, though, so he took a sip and said, "It tastes good- but I really have to head out real quick."

And he did. 

Back out he went- he _dashed_ \- but he made sure to send a quick text to Donnie after remembering his little outburst over Leo leaving before without a warning. 

This gave him some more time to really think, running around the weird New York to search for all the nearest Walgreens and pharmacies he could steal from. Maybe he'd leave a detailed note for this uptight Leo, try to reach him about what a _proper_ Leo should be doing. 

And, of course, he runs into Karai, but he doesn't think it's much of a coincidence when she smirks at him and asks him what he's doing. _Donnie_ , his head supplies. It's always Donnie. It was getting his nerves- he really wished that the guy would leave him alone. It felt like in _every_ dimension, Donnie seemed to be attuned to his own mischief. 

And then-

An idea. 

"Look, Karai," he leans against a building, arms crossed with a matching smirk of his own, "Can I be straight with you? I mean, that's already difficult to do on its own, but there's something I gotta talk about and I don't really know if I can tell the others."

She blinked at him, silent for a few seconds before placing a hand on her hip and nodding, a "this should be good," humming from her lips.

And from there, they talked. 

Or, well, he explained and she laughed in his face, not believing a word he said. 

"I'm being serious!" Leon protested, waving his arms around while she held her stomach from all her chortling. 

What did he say wrong? He'd hoped he could trust her since she literally _witnessed_ him breaking down earlier, but instead she's standing here, laughing at him like he- he-

And he was frustrated again. 

"Did you think I didn't see what you were _doing_ ?" She hissed, and nearly two seconds later she runs toward him, weapon in hand, and Leo panics because he didn't _bring any weapons because they felt too weird to hold, like they belonged to him but they didn't-_

He dodges all her attacks, backflipping backwards when she ran on the wall of a building to kick him in the shoulder-

And he ran into a car, tripped, and fell on his face. 

_Wow_ , he thinks, _this is seriously an off day for me._

He blames it on the new body that he still has trouble functioning. Definitely not on his decaying senity. 

Karai placed her foot on his head, pushing down. Hard. 

"Leo doesn't _steal_ ," she growled. "The Leonardo I know wouldn't steal. I tried to get him to do that once, but you wouldn't know that. Besides," she dug her heel deeper, making him grunt when his chin pressed harder against the concrete. 

"I know it's you, _Baxter._ "

It was getting hard to _breathe._ He thinks distantly that she might be crushing his windpipe or something, but those thoughts are easily swept away when he gets distracted by her statement. 

"Stock…. Boy?" He coughs out, trying to find a sliver of sense in the conversation. "You think _Stockboy_ is doing," he has to let out even more coughs before continuing, " somethin' to _me_? What would he even do?"

  
  


That must've set something off in her, because she tilted her head quizzically and sneered, "StockMAN. Brain Worms?? Are you really not-" 

A familiar ringtone chimes cheerfully, and Karai brings out her phone and answers it, the pressure on his head lifting a bit.

"Hello-"

Someone loud screeched on the other side, not that Leon could really hear enough to understand, but he hoped he could get away because it was still difficult to breathe and he _needed_ to get her off. 

While she was distracted, he shook her leg off and stood up, not caring as she stumbled around. 

Man, today wasn't his day. He realized that once again, and he really wished he didn't because it was _seriously_ dragging down his mood. He was wheezing for breath, hands on his knees as he tried to collect it back and stay as far away from the- the _violent_ Karai that was too different from the gentle and kind grandmother he knew. 

Why would she think he was Stockboy? It really struck him as odd, and he had to wonder what else set this Dimension differently from his. 

He was distracted, too busy thinking about the weird world he'd ended up in and trying to catch his breath that he hadn't noticed that Karai was already walking over to him awkwardly. "Uh," she put her sword away, "sorry. I thought you were-" she coughed. "Brain Worm."

_Wow._ Leo thinks dryly. _What a great explanation._

And they sit there for a moment, the blinking sign alternating between images behind them as Leon contemplates, realizing that it might not have been the best move to tell _this_ Karai all his secrets. But, really, it already happened and if he keeps thinking about it, he'd lose his head. Probably. 

"So… that weird dimension stuff was true?"

He glances back at her, tapping his fingers on the window behind him mindlessly while he thinks. "Yeah," he says, and he really would continue but his mind was already wondering off to other topics- just her mentioning the dimension dilemma made him go down a path of different memories already. He missed his brothers; he missed his home. 

"What's it like?" Karai asks, and he's brought back and groans slightly because he keeps getting distracted and this weirdo place isn't helping. 

"Well," he begins, and he tries to think on _where_ to actually start, because there's a lot of things he could say, and he decides to start with his happier memories. 

He recounts a lot of them to her;

Setting the kitchen on fire while cooking with Mikey. He was eleven, Mikey was ten- they wanted to make the _best_ ramen ever since Lou Jitsu liked ramen, but his brother had left him for a few seconds to ask their father about some ingredient- he didn't remember that- and, honestly, he was a kid and nobody could blame him for not considering that the noodles weren't supposed to just be placed into a pan on the stove and left there to burn. 

Mikey, of course, banned him from ever entering the kitchen, but it was still fun. 

Kind of. Cleaning up after it wasn't fun, but the cooking part with Mikey was. 

He laughed about a time when Donnie had made a birthday present for him- his first skateboard (unfortunately, one he accidentally broke while showing off his _incredible_ chopping skills, but Donnie quickly forgave him and said that it was "old anyway"). He'd eventually made skateboards for everyone after enough complaining, but Raph accidentally snapped his and Mikey kept crashing into things trying to perform tricks, so they weren't really allowed to skateboard until they were older. 

"Mikey got better at it, though," Leon laughed. _I didn't_. 

He didn't. He just kept crashing and crashing and _somehow_ was able to land tricks, but he thinks they're more like _luck_ instead of actual skill, but he'd never admit it. 

He talks about how angry Raph was as a kid, how they'd argue every so often and snap at each other. He skipped over the small details, like how Raph had his plural system and how he had his ADHD and while they _seemed_ like things that would bring them closer together, it really just caused some troubles since Leon got easily irritated with constant noises and new situations, and Raph had trouble managing his anger and was sensitive. 

Fortunately, as a family, they all worked together to cope with these, and Raph wasn't nearly as irritable as he was back then, and Leon was… Well, he was Leon. He could handle constant noises, _sort of_ , but it still set him in a bad mood sometimes… even though he found himself moving around sometimes. 

"So you're close with Raphael, then, huh?"

He pauses and realizes just how long he's been talking about how he and Raph had grown as brothers, and he smiles a bit and says, "Yeah, well, they're my _hermanos._ I'm close with all of them. 'Sides," Leo crosses his arms, sighing a bit.

"Even though I'm kinda sorta the _leader,_ " he spits this out, not at all comfortable with the change still, "Raph'll always be the leader for all of us. Even if Pops changes things, I could never…" 

He swallows. 

He finds that he can't finish that sentence, not that it matters anyway because once he catches the look that Karai was giving him, he snorts and asks, "What?"

"Raph's the leader? Him?"

Oh. 

He really wasn't liking this Karai much. His tapping grew more furious as he grinds his teeth slightly, giving her the stink eye, "Yeah, and? He's a _great_ leader, even though his plans aren't the _best_ , he's the best leader we could ask for." He hasn't even realized he was stalking toward her, fingers leaving the window and arms crossing over his plastron. 

"You better choose your next words good, 'cause nobody can trash on my brothers, except us." He jabs towards himself with his thumb. 

She nods, looking like she wants to retort but obviously holding back. 

And the conversation stills, and Leon finally remembers what he was doing. He fiddles with the satchel at his side, full of different kinds of bandages, pills, ointments and- 

_Oh yeah_ , he grimaces, _this is definitely illegal._

  
  


Not that it mattered to him much. He needed to get some of the medicine to the weirdo April and then make sure she rests and _hopefully_ doesn't alert anyone else. 

The problem with that, of course, was convincing the other Weirdo not to tell anyone. 

"So, Karai," he starts, heart leaping nervously in his chest as he _zips_ the zipper on his bag back and forth to find-

Leon groans. She already ran off. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugggg you have no idea how hard it is to write for Karai
> 
> I mean, I'm rewatching both ROTTMNT and TMNT2012 to take note of their personalities and stuff like that, but it frustrates me still because I have a hard time putting myself into characters' heads and I rely on my own experiences and combining them with scenes, different actions characters will pull, and things they say. Leon is easy, because he's silly and jokes around a lot and likes to put himself out there, but it also seems that he can easily get his confidence blown and sometimes struggles with keeping it up, like in Minotaur Maze 
> 
> But Karai,,,, was cool in concept, but for some reason I just have a hard time writing her in and she's like, essential to 2012 Leo's character in some ways. Writing her interacting with Leon was kinda just... I dunno, difficult, and I decided that if I tried too hard I might mess something up, so I decided that, well, we're still early on in the story so it's not hard to have her blend into the background a bit. As someone with Bipolar and ADHD, it's very easy to zone out and get caught up in your emotions, and since this is a big thing for Leon, and that I'm giving him ADHD for this story, I thought it would fit the mood better, too
> 
> I also had the idea of having Donnie and Karai working together to try and figure out what was going on with Leo. I originally thought to have Donnie just COMPLETELY figure everything out before realizing that as cool as that would be, it wouldn't make much sense and I tried to work out on what would make sense
> 
> And then I thought, "oh yeah, Brain Worms are a thing", and since Karai has had PERSONAL experience with them, I thought it was even better and here we are. I liked having them guess it was something more... I dunno, In Universe then to instantly be like "yOU ARE SWITCHING BODIES WITH LEO" or smth
> 
> Meanwhile, with 2012 Leo, he instantly tells the others and since 2018 Karai knew, she told Raph about it and stuff so that's why he believes him so readily. 
> 
> Anyway, yaddah yaddah, I'm gonna work on the next chapter. I'm also gonna try to get into some kinda schedule- hope you guys like this! I enjoy writing it.


	4. Casey Gets Obliterated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You were all kinds of wack, dude," he starts, "You even stole some stuff from some farms-" 
> 
> "Pharmacies, Mikey."
> 
> "Nah, it's totally farms." 
> 
> "WHY would there be medicine at farms?" 
> 
> "Uh, why else? To feed to the pigs." 
> 
> "Pigs don't eat Tylenol, Michelangelo."
> 
> "No, I'm pretty sure I'm right."
> 
> Donnie's eye twitched. 

Leo hates basketball. 

Donnie and Mikey seem to find his fails hilarious, and all his bumbling around just made him want to throw the ball directly in their faces and laugh at _that_. 

He had to tell himself several times that he was a _sensei_ now. Even if he wasn't their sensei, he still needed to push down his emotions and control them. 

"Who told you you needed to do that?" 

They'd been sitting to the side, taking a break while Raph joyfully shares the times that their Leo and Donnie had while playing basketball. Supposedly, they were polar opposites; Leo was brilliant and Donnie couldn't even throw the ball properly. 

But, well, he was worse than the Softshell now, so he guesses that Don must feel pretty great. 

At some point, their conversations turned to him, and he talked about random moments in his life. The small ones, the ones that made little impact and didn't have to do with Shredder, training, or anything that involves their overall Ninja situation. 

Which was difficult. The amount of memory searching he had to do made him realize that he didn't really get much time to himself, or in the New York outside of the deserted nighttime streets he was accustomed to. He had listened to these Turtles recount different tales of them going up to the surface during the _day_ , whether to buy new clothes for their Splinter or to watch April fend off against a rivaling Dojo (he had no idea what that meant, why they even had a dojo or rivals in the first place, but he felt awkward asking since the boys were so into telling the story). 

Mikey was the only one really listening to him. 

Donnie seemed to be in his own world, typing away on his phone while Raph kept getting distracted by the cars zooming past, but he'd occasionally throw in his own two cents. 

Like right now. 

"Told me to do what?" Leo peers up at Raph, who was currently leaning against a wall with Mikey settled up on his shoulders, twirling his mask tails around. 

"Uh, you know," he starts, pressing his hands together in thought, "push down your emotions. Why do you gotta do that?"

… He hadn't realized he said that aloud. 

"Well, I mean, Master Splinter of course-" he ignores the odd looks Mikey gives him and fiddles with his fingers. "Back when I was just starting out as the leader, the others didn't listen to a _single_ thing I said and Raph decided to go into his whole, 'I bet I could be a better leader than you ' thing, " Donnie snorts at his mocking tone. 

"So I let him. I walked back to the lair and watched TV and at some point, Master Splinter walked in and we…" his throat closes up when he remembers that day. He was supposed to set his emotions aside and lead his brothers- and now he's here. Having some kind of therapy session. 

Leo turns away, hands shoved in his pockets. The other three follow behind him, and he could feel their stares, the bare whispers of a voice in his head telling him that he'd never be a champion, that he was useless and he constantly failed them and-

And Leo stops there. If his mood continues to worsen, he doesn't want to feel the backlash of emotions that this world's Leo had. He wasn't really sure if those thoughts were his own or the other's… 

He wasn't sure if he even wanted to know. 

  
  


When they make it back, Leo excuses himself to go back to his "room", pointedly telling them that he's tired. 

Mikey had said something about how the day had barely just started, but he ignored it because, honestly, he was _exhausted_. Absolutely exhausted. Playing basketball for the first time and that small slip of emotions tore into him and he didn't really want to go through any of it again. 

And so he slept. 

  
  
  
  


"What? He was acting _weird_ , Donnie. What did you expect me to do?" 

" _Not_ knock him out! How does your brain even WORK? Why does his odd behavior translate to punching the daylights out of him?" 

"But, dudes, what if it was an alien? Or-OR-ANOTHER BRAIN WOR-" a yelp of pain cuts the familiar voice off, interrupted with a, "knock it off, Mikey." 

"We already confirmed it wasn't a brain worm, you're all just IDIOTS."

Leo groaned, rolling over before falling right into the floor and-

Oh. It was a dream. 

He sits up, thankful that he was finally back in his own body, everything back to normal, with his brothers arguing right in front of him while he slept on the couch…

"Hey, guys?" he croaks, wincing at the sudden pain pulsing through his head. "What time is it? How long have I been sleeping?" 

A thought comes to mind and he stands up, realizing that everyone's undivided attention was now on him and he hurriedly glances around the room, "Is it time to go out for patrol yet? Where are my swords? And-" he notices a pouch attached to his belt, which he opens and narrows his eyes at the bandages and pill bottles settled inside. "What's with _this_?" 

He whipped back towards his brothers, who were silently leering at him before Raph shrugged, "Leo's finally lost it, everyone."

Donnie turns to him angrily, waving his arms in the air and shouts, "He's not crazy, I was _trying_ to explain before you decided to PUNCH him." Mikey lowers his head into his shell, laughing nervously. "You were all kinds of wack, dude," he starts, "You even stole some stuff from some farms-" 

"Pharmacies, Mikey."

"Nah, it's totally farms." 

"WHY would there be medicine at farms?" 

"Uh, why else? To feed to the pigs." 

"Pigs don't eat Tylenol, Michelangelo."

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm right."

Donnie's eye twitched. 

"What do you want me to do? Apologize? What if it wasn't actually Leo?" Raph places his hands on his hips, glaring at their brother. Donnie starts to pace around the room, muttering something about how nobody listens to him. 

"There's no 'what if' about it. Because that wasn't Leo!" Donatello retorts, still pacing in a circle with his fists clenched. He walks up to Raph and jabs a finger into his plastron, "Maybe if your moronic brain would stop and listen to me for a moment-" 

Raph grabs his arm and pulls it behind his back, ignoring Donnie's groan of pain and smiling mischievously as he taunts, "Yeah, a lecture from you? No thanks. Maybe try telling that to-" 

Leo's headache was getting worse and his patience was running thin. "Can you guys cut it out and just tell me what happened?" he shouts, walking up to the two to separate them. It's starting to dawn onto him that maybe that weird separate universe wasn't a dream, and well, clearly the discourse caused some major problems with his team-

With his brothers. 

They're his brothers… Not just a team. 

Eventually, he manages to get all three of them sitting on the couch as he explains to them what happened on his side. "I thought it was just a dream but," he pauses, almost wanting to grin but settles for a small smile instead, "oh man, it wasn't really anything like the other universes, guys. I didn't even have to fight anything, I could just…" 

And from there he trails off, recognizing the lost looks on his brothers' faces. 

"So, he wasn't lying, then." Donnie scribbled something down in a notebook. Raph looks back at him, flabbergasted, "You mean you didn't even _know_ if he was telling the truth or not, Shellhead?" he goes to smack their brother over the head again, but Leo grabs his hand and glares down at them. 

"That doesn't matter right now, _Raph_ ," he spits out, "so stop hitting him." 

Distantly, the image of Mikey sitting perched on the much, much bigger Raphael without getting thrown off danced around in his mind. They both looked genuinely happy and comfortable and-

He wishes his brothers had that. 

Raph, thankfully, crosses his arms silently and sticks to giving Donnie the stink eye. 

  
  


\---

They didn't go patrolling. Donnie explained what had happened on their side of things, and Leo had to let out a few laughs because he had expected the other Leo to be a mess just from hearing stories, but he hadn't really thought he'd be so… Well, completely different from him. They all went to their respective areas to settle down for the night (Raph was playing with Chompy, Donnie had retired to his lab, and Mikey was… Probably cooking another abomination in the kitchen. He didn't wanna know, but by the gross aching in his stomach, he assumes that that Leo had eaten SOMETHING of Mikey's), and he, himself was staring at a journal sitting on his bed, a pen laying next to it… 

Leo taps his foot angrily against the ground, huffing. "That idiot…"

He'd left the cap to the side, letting the ink run through his sheets and _staining_ his bed. He's gonna tear up the posters in Other Leo's room when he goes there again. 

_If_ he goes there again. 

He opens to the first page and instantly cringes at the scrawled words. 

_"Heyyyyy, other Leo. I got this notebook. Super cool, right?"_

He groaned. 

_"Yeah, so, first things first, ARE YOU CRAZY? How come you've NEVER done any kind of medic studies? Your brothers thought I was crazy! You were crazy. That WE were crazy._

_"I'm so gonna write you an entire list of how all of the supplies in that bag works. Wait, no, never mind, I've decided. Don't even use it. Just put the bag SOMEWHERE and never even touch it. It's mine. Also, dude, next time I go there I'm totally getting you better stuff for your living room. It totally sucks._

_"AnyWAY, this is the perfect way for us to talk, maybe spill some tea, I don't really know but it's awesome, right? By the way, your Raph should learn how to knit. My Raph learned a long time ago and I'm pretty sure that's the secret to his success. Aaaand, I have been summoned by your brothers. Wish my luck xoxo"_

Leo wanted to strange him. He definitely would if he could. First, the guy insults him, tries to boss him around, and criticizes his life? 

Nuh-uh. No way. 

Angrily, he takes the other pen, throws it away, and searches his room until he finds a new one and starts writing a note on the next page over. 

He wants to make fun of how HE lives? He can take a bit of his own medicine. (Pun definitely not intended, he refused to stoop down to this Leo's level). 

It takes a bit before he realizes he wrote too much. Frowning, Leo shoved the journal onto the floor besides his bed and sat down on his mattress cross legged, closing his eyes and falling into a deep state of meditation. 

Images flash by in his kind, but it's not the usual. 

It's not Splinter's body cutting through the air, or being stabbed through while they frantically fought off Triceritons. It's not Shredder as he kicks him across the field, or when they battle on the burning rooftop. It's not the alien invasions, or Donnie's body bursting into nothingness or Mikey clinging onto him for dear life or Ralph's distressed face as he hugged him close. 

It wasn't anything like those. 

Instead, a vivid, warming memory came to mind. He doesn't know how old he is, but he does know that they had snuck out of the lair to find something interesting. They were little and the only interesting things they'd had were books and an old television that seemed to play the same things over and over again. 

They wanted something new. 

After freaking out about a cat trying to eat him, Mikey dashed off back into the sewers and the rest of them followed after, soon lost and cold. Thankfully, Splinter found them all huddled up and shivering after who knows how long, and promised to find better gifts for them. 

And he remembers when Splinter handed him his first Space Heroes copy. He had no idea what it was but he was _happy._ Excited. The first thing Little Leo did was dash towards the TV and set everything up, ignoring Mikey's cheers for his comics, Raph's complaints of a pet turtle, and Donnie's indifferent huffs, fiddling with some kind of 3D puzzle in his hands. 

After a while, the other three sat down with him to watch. They all laughed, rewatched the episodes again and again and _again_ , Leo memorizing all of it. Mikey soon grew bored and turned to his comics, but Donnie and Raph argued about the scientifics of the show, what was "cool" and what wasn't, etc etc. 

But it was a nice memory. They'd all come together and watched Space Heroes and-

Well, they didn't do that anymore. In fact, it had been so long that Leo completely forgot that that had even happened. Donnie hardly seemed interested, Mikey would occasionally sit down with him and watch it, and he's almost _sure_ THAT Raph secretly glances at the television while pretending to read the SAME exact newspaper he's always read (scratch that, he's positive that Raph's never even properly read it. He probably uses it as a guise so that he doesn't admit that he still likes Space Heroes). 

He smiles a bit at the memory. 

He can't really remember the last time he and his brothers properly hung out to do anything that wasn't related to their Ninja work. 

  
  
  


Leo's not sure when he fell asleep, but at some point he's awake again and he's still in his own body, thankfully. 

His phone is ringing obnoxiously loudly and he groans, turning his body around and blindly reaches for it to check who was calling. 

"Casey…?" his voice was scratchy. 

He answers, wincing instantly after hearing his friend's extremely loud yelling. 

"DUDE!! GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW! SOMETHING'S UP WITH APRIL!!" 

He groans, again. "Casey, what could possibly be so BAD that you have to call me at," he checks the time, "two in the morning? If she's sick, just get her to the hospital or something." 

"That's not what you said- whatever, look, man, I already told her dad and he went nuts and then HE took her to the hospital, but now she's - HOLY SHI-" there's multiple crashes and cursing on his end, and what he assumes to be the phone smacking against the floor and cracking. 

After a few silent beats, he can hear the phone being picked up and Casey huffs into the mic, "April's mi-" 

Leo cuts him off, "Where _are_ you? Are you okay?" 

"For the LOVE OF - April's MISSING. Kirby took her to the hospital and the doctors called and said she just disappeared! I'm tryin' to look for her, but now I've got Purple Dragons chasin' me and it's getting on my nerves and-" and the line cuts off after another series of crashing and a shout of, "COWABUNGA!" is heard. 

Leo's phone falls to the floor and he lets out another tired groan. 

Donnie probably needs to make Casey an entirely new phone. 

  
  
  
  
  


Donnie was the easiest to inform and Mikey was the hardest. Mostly, because Donnie was already awake and Mikey was a nightmare to wake up. 

Pouring cold water on Raph does the trick, but Leo has to dodge a punch coming his way before telling him to suit up and storming out. 

"Can you give me a little more, I don't know," Donnie straps a knee guard on his leg and reaches for his staff, "information to work with? What did he mean, April is missing? Did that moron even tell you what happened?" 

Leo glances back at his brother, who was anxiously chewing on his thumb and he realizes that, well, maybe he should've just left them out of this and left to look on his own. 

He sighs, placing his katanas in their sheaths and stretches his limbs a bit, "I don't know, D, he was kind of getting ATTACKED while he screamed into the phone." He replies, grimacing when he notices it sounded a bit more angry than he'd intended. 

He hears Donnie mumble a, "yeah, well _sorry_." before he turns around to see Mikey nodding off and Raph… Nowhere to be seen. 

Leo facepalms. 

"Okay, you know what? Donnie, just you and me. Let's go, Coffee Man," he doesn't give his brother a moment to hesitate and he grabs his elbow, pulling him and dashing out of the lair. Mikey falls flat on his face onto the couch behind them, and he hopes that April hasn't gotten herself into _too_ much trouble. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jdoaksosks I figured out how to get the italics and such on there :DDD
> 
> Now to edit the other chapters so I can get the full thing

**Author's Note:**

> Ndiasjosksoakskskddme thanks for reading


End file.
